{"id":3468,"date":"2026-09-25T17:25:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T16:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/96-7-g-co2-per-km-european-new-cars-reach-a-new-milestone-in-2025\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T17:25:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T16:25:24","slug":"96-7-g-co2-per-km-european-new-cars-reach-a-new-milestone-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/96-7-g-co2-per-km-european-new-cars-reach-a-new-milestone-in-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"96.7 g CO2 per km: European new cars reach a new milestone in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2025, new cars sold in Europe crossed a symbolic threshold: an average of only 96.7 g of CO\u2082 per kilometer. Behind this dramatic drop lies an automotive market transformation that is far faster than it may appear.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

In a year, new cars shaved nearly 10 grams of CO\u2082 per kilometer<\/h2>\n

At first glance, dix grammes de CO\u2082<\/strong> might seem almost anecdotal. Yet on the scale of millions of cars, the shift takes on a different dimension. According to the European Environment Agency, average emissions fell from 106.7 g\/km in 2024 to 96.7 g\/km in 2025<\/strong>. The data are still provisional.<\/p>\n

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This average covers roughly 10.8 million new cars<\/strong> registered in the European Union, Norway, and Iceland. The number of registrations hardly changed. The drop therefore does not stem from a collapse in sales. It is mainly explained by the arrival of lower-emitting vehicles on European roads.<\/p>\n

And this shift has a clearly identifiable driver. Fully electric cars accounted for 18.9 % of new registrations<\/strong> in 2025, up from 14.4 % a year earlier. Plug-in hybrids reached 9.7% in parallel. A few percentage points more on the market are thus enough to noticeably pull down the continent\u2019s average carbon footprint.<\/p>\n

Behind the 96.7 g\/km figure lies the unstoppable rise of the electric car<\/h2>\n

A zero-emission car at the tailpipe automatically pulls the average downward in regulatory calculations. This mechanism explains a large part of the decline observed in 2025. Internal combustion engines did not, by themselves, undergo a comparable revolution in twelve months.<\/p>\n

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The evolution becomes even more striking when viewed over a longer horizon. The ICCT estimates that in 2025 electric vehicles accounted for around 19 % of European registrations<\/strong>. Meanwhile, conventional internal-combustion vehicles continued their retreat. European carmaking has not yet changed its world, but its center of gravity is clearly moving.<\/p>\n

But a zero tailpipe emission car is never truly \u201czero carbon\u201d<\/h2>\n

The battery quickly reminds us of a less comfortable reality: manufacturing a electric car emits CO\u2082<\/strong>. Extracting raw materials, producing cells, assembling, and transporting all add up before the first kilometer is driven. According to the ICCT, manufacturing can generate roughly 40% more emissions than that of a comparable gasoline car.<\/p>\n

The story, however, reverses once the car starts moving. A 2025 ICCT study estimates a life-cycle emission of an electric model at about 63 g CO\u2082e\/km<\/strong>. A comparable gasoline car reaches 235 g. The carbon payback from manufacturing would be offset after roughly 17,000 kilometers.<\/p>\n

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ADEME arrives at a similar logic. It emphasizes, however, that the size of the vehicle matters a great deal<\/strong>. In France, a small electric city car can become more favorable than a diesel after around 20,000 kilometers. For a large electric SUV, this threshold can climb to 100,000 kilometers. Electrification therefore does not erase the weight question.<\/p>\n

The next challenge won\u2019t be played only in car exhausts<\/h2>\n

CO\u2082 should not be confused with all automotive pollutants. It primarily drives climate warming<\/strong>. Nitrogen oxides and fine particles affect, directly, air quality. Even without an exhaust, an electric car still emits particles linked to tires and road wear.<\/p>\n

The figure of 96.7 g\/km thus looks less like a finish line than a turning point in an era<\/strong>. The European Commission sets a reference level of 93.6 g\/km for cars in the 2025-2029 period. Further cuts are already planned for the next decade, with regulatory targets becoming increasingly stringent.<\/p>\n

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As exhaust disappears, other questions become more visible: vehicle weight<\/strong>, battery production, the origin of electricity, recycling, or the car\u2019s place in the city. The next ecological battle may no longer simply be about changing engines. It could require a broader question: what kind of car will Europe truly need?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2409,762,2408,2410,1951],"class_list":["post-3468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-cars","tag-co","tag-european","tag-milestone","tag-reach","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3468"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3470,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3468\/revisions\/3470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}